Tenth Ave. North’s aching heart

Last year, Ten­th Avenue North won the Dove Award for best new artist and this year the trio won the Dove for song of the year for “By Your Side.” Wow what a ride, but Mike Done­hey is more mod­est.

“You know peo­ple ask us all the time what’s it like to be suc­cess­ful and play in front of all the­se peo­ple. And I say, ‘You don’t under­stand why we write music. We write music because I see the­se kids who just don’t get it. I write songs to make dis­ci­ples out of them.’ I have this ache in my heart. You can tell when you talk to peo­ple about Jesus … you can see if they get it. And I see the­se kids and it only increas­es the ache.”

Jason Ingram who co-wrote the song with Done­hey and Philip Larue, said: “I’ve nev­er been around musi­cians who are as pas­sion­ate about God. They are not pur­su­ing music, they are pur­su­ing God.”

Larue also said about the song­writ­ing process: “We write what we want to hear.” Added Done­hey: “A song is like a rela­tion­ship. The hook is the first date and the lyrics is what keeps the rela­tion­ship going.”